Category Archives: Environmental Review

In a letter dated May 24, 2017, the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC) has asked Governor Terry McAuliffe to reject the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) latest attempt to evade its responsibilities to protect our waters and our communities from damages that would result from construction of the Atlantic Continue Reading →

The communication professionals working for Dominion are campaigning to convince everyone that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a done deal – despite the fact that challenges are mounting and the project has received none of the required state and federal approvals. An article just published in Southeast Energy News highlights some of Continue Reading →

Dominion intends to blast away, excavate, and partially remove mountaintops along 38 miles of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. The magnitude of this undertaking has been described in a fact sheet, New Data: Atlantic Coast Pipeline Would Trigger Extensive Mountaintop Removal. The fact sheet was Continue Reading →

The editorial writers of the Richmond Times-Dispatch go to extremes in their support for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Their April 8th editorial, Time to move forward on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, is a classic. DPMC Investigator, David Sligh, provided the following response (published in the RTD on April 15th). Your Continue Reading →

An update to our last article – Timely Access to Critical Information: The DEQ has changed its story. DPMC wants to know why legal action was required to get what we trust is an accurate story. In response to DPMC’s April 7 request for public records related to construction of Continue Reading →

For the second time in less than a year, the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC) has started a legal proceeding to compel the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to obey the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). DPMC seeks information justifying a DEQ decision that affects regulation of utility Continue Reading →

If built, the ACP could mar the beautiful, unfragmented viewshed of the southern end of the proposed 90,000-acre Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area that stretches from Rt. 250 north to Rt. 33 on the western side of the Shenandoah Valley. A new utility corridor across the Braley Pond area and Continue Reading →

The Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition has objected to a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) proposal to issue a “Water Quality Certification” (WQC) that would give free rein to parties proposing to rip and blast through Virginia streams and wetlands to build utility lines. The DEQ has not conducted the Continue Reading →

Congress explicitly reserved states’ authorities to veto federally-permitted projects, to protect state waters. That authority comes from section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which empowers states to grant or deny a “water quality certification” and forbids federal approval without that certification. The following op-ed by DPMC Regulatory System Investigator, Continue Reading →

A new overview of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the ACP is now available. DEIS: What is it? What’s in it? What you can do! is a 16-page overview of the DEIS process, prepared by Lew Freeman, Chair and Executive Director of the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance. It features highlights Continue Reading →

The DPMC has submitted a report to FERC on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the ACP and the proposal to drill through the Blue Ridge Mountains under the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the George Washington National Forest. Implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act requires Continue Reading →

Before the ACP can be built across the national forests, the US Forest Service must issue Special Use Permits and amend forest management plans. Dominion has repeatedly requested “expedited” review of this complex project which has so much potential to negatively impact both public and private lands. The Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance Continue Reading →

Two documents that substantiate the dramatically increased probability of precipitation-induced landslides following the extensive excavation associated with construction of the proposed ACP and related roads were recently submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. One, submitted by the DPMC, concerns the Little Valley area in Bath County, Virginia. The other, Continue Reading →

The following was published in the December 16, 2016 ABRA Update (No. 109). The National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have raised objections to FERC’s permitting timetable for the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines. In letters to FERC, the agencies state that they must follow their own review process Continue Reading →

Atlantic Coast Pipeline

The proposed pipeline will cross the central Allegheny Highlands, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the adjacent valleys. It will cut through 30 miles of national forest and cross numerous rivers, streams, and wetlands. This area represents the heart of the remaining wild landscape in the eastern United States, and it is a major biodiversity refugium that can only increase in rarity and importance.

The proposed pipeline will be 42 inches in diameter, requiring excavation of an 8 to 12-foot-deep trench and the bulldozing of a 125-foot-wide construction corridor straight up and down multiple steep-sided forested mountains. It will require construction of heavy-duty transport roads and staging areas for large earth-moving equipment and pipeline assembly. It will require blasting through bedrock, and excavation through streams and wetlands. It will require construction across unstable and hydrologically sensitive karst terrain.

Pipeline construction on this scale, across this type of steep, well-watered, forested mountain landscape, is unprecedented.

It will be impossible to avoid degradation of water resources, including heavy sedimentation of streams, alteration of runoff patterns and stream channels, disturbance of groundwater flow, and damage to springs and water supplies.

It will be impossible to avoid fragmentation and degradation of intact, high-integrity forests, including habitat for threatened and endangered species and ecosystem restoration areas.